


The Boy Who Changed Our World

by AislingSiobhan



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, F/F, Harley ages as it goes, Kid Fic, Loki and Tony bonding over their kids, Protective Tony, adoption fic, post Thor 2, post im3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:14:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2564540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AislingSiobhan/pseuds/AislingSiobhan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being the closest Tony’d ever get to having a kid, Harley didn’t know how lucky he had it. No, really, he didn’t know; Tony made sure of that. Anonymous donations, coincidental scholarships, random lottery invitations to the best colleges in the Country: Harley had it made, but he knew. Loki knew all about having a child you couldn’t see or speak to, about gifting them worlds and souls and apologies in lieu of bedtime stories and hugs. Loki and Tony bond over how much that sucks (but also doesn’t).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy Who Changed Our World

This is for the Frostiron Big/Mini Bang on Tumblr and AO3. Hope everyone enjoys my contribution!

See here for a pretty picture:

http://xjapanda.tumblr.com/post/101784947614/art-for-the-2014-frostiron-bang-the-boy-who  

**“The Boy Who Changed Our World”**

**Disclaimer:** The Avengers, Tony, Loki, etc belong to Marvel, Stan Lee, et co. I make no money from this and own nothing, don’t sue.  
 **Summary:** [Tony/Loki] Being the closest Tony’d ever get to having a kid, Harley didn’t know how lucky he had it. No, really, he didn’t know; Tony made sure of that. Anonymous donations, coincidental scholarships, random lottery invitations to the best colleges in the Country: Harley had it made, but he knew. Loki knew all about having a child you couldn’t see or speak to, about gifting them worlds and souls and apologies in lieu of bedtime stories and hugs. Loki and Tony bond over how much that sucks (but also doesn’t).  
 **Warnings:** Slash. Loki/Tony. Post-IM3. Post-Thor 2. AU. Harley ages as it goes. Over protective Tony. Adoption fic. Kid fic. Loki and Tony bonding over their kids.  
 **Rating:** PG15  
 **A/N:** Taken from a Tumblr post about Tony taking care of Harley in secret as he grew up (to pay him back for keeping Tony sane during IM3) and then running into him ten years later at a Stark Expo. But with Loki. Because of Frostiron reasons.  
 **Title:** From: "There, you foolish, beautiful boy who wants to change the world. There, there. And who could keep from loving you? Who could keep from loving a boy so brave and true?” by Kate DiCamillo, “The Magician's Elephant”.  
 **Beta:** Araea_Swiftwind (FFNet)  
 **Artist:** Xjapanda(.tumblr.com)

_XXX_

**Words:** 5,729  
 **Chapter 1**  
That Christmas was one of the worst Tony had experienced. It was different to the tried and tested 'keep out of the way Tony, I'm working' Christmases he used to have at the manor in New York, and different to the 'my parents are dead, buy me a drink' Christmases he used to have at the bottom of a bottle in a back alley dive some place in Massachusetts. It was different because there had been good ones in between, ones with Pepper, Happy and Rhodey and hell even a couple with Obie before the fucker tried to kill him. But this one, this one was only months after the Chitauri invasion, during a time when Tony still woke up at night flailing and screaming and needed to build an army of Iron Men just to feel safe enough to close his eyes in the first place. That Christmas the Mandarin had almost killed Happy and Killian had blown his house right off the side of the cliff it was built on, Malibu not looking half as sunny when he was buried beneath rubble sixteen feet underwater. That Christmas he and Pepper had fought and his suit had hurt her and he had hurt her. It should have been good because they were together, but Tony ended up alone, the suit a dead weight metal coffin so he had to drag it behind him through the snow of Somewhere, Tennessee. 

He had had the kid though. 

Harley Keener had appeared before him like a gift from some sarcastic god of bad taste. He was a great kid, and in all probability he had saved Tony's life that weekend, but he was still a smart-mouthed little shit! But Tony meant that in a good way. 

Ten years old and going on forty, Harley hadn't had the best childhood. Absentee father (maybe there was a reason to be a 'little bitch' about that, but well, dads _did_ leave. Tony's did, in all the ways that mattered, long before he died). Workaholic mom, who was only trying to pay the bills. Kid sister who wasn't old enough to take care of herself, so Harley had to raise them both. Never knowing if and when there was going to be food on the table, lunches made from the cornflakes that gather at the bottom of the box between it and the plastic, gone off milk if they had some or tap water if they didn't until his mum came home from her shift and made them beans on toast. Christmas was a time of saving and scrimping in Harley's house, but he'd still given Tony his potato gun (kid made a mean potato gun!) and hadn't complained when Tony brought Amber's Dora the Explorer watch back to him all busted up. 

Normal kids cried and whined when their stuff got broken, but not Harley. He'd been grateful that Tony had even brought it back at all! Course, Tony had replaced it; newer model, better mechanisms, upgraded it himself in his own workshop and had it shipped over, along with the potato gun Mark III (to replace the Mark II Tony had built and left behind while Harley was sleeping). 

From then on out, Christmas in the Keener household became a time for excuses. "Mom, honestly I didn't steal it!" "Mom I don't know where it came from!" "No mom, he just gave it to me! He didn't want anything for it!" "NO! Oh god mom, no! He didn't touch me!" Presents would turn up in the post, at Christmas and birthdays (and Amber's birthday too, cause it wasn't the kid's fault she was too young to help Tony out that one time), until Harley managed to track down Tony's newest PR and tell him to stop. 

Tony stopped. 

Or rather, Tony stopped being so obvious about it. He still sent gifts, because it was the least he could do, and he paid off the mortgage on their house, and he tracked down Harley's douche father and terrified him into at least sending the kid an "I'm sorry I bailed card" for his twelfth birthday. The gifts no longer arrived by tracked courier, but rather by second hand post with charity stamps across the packaging, and Harley's mom would frown and sigh (guilty that she couldn't afford such nice things for her children and unhappy about accepting charity) but she couldn’t return toys that had seemingly been donated from Oxfam or the NSPCC or Make A Wish (or Stark Industries' own charity: she never looked too closely at the labels. Harley did though). 

When the bills for Harley's high school and meal plan never arrived, his mom called the school. They told her it had already been paid, named his father, and no one but Tony could track him down to prove that it wasn't. So, she accepted it. And again for Amber. When it was time for Harley to start applying for colleges, scholarship offers started pouring in. His grades had been good, but not that good towards the end of high school because he had been too busy working two part time jobs in the hopes of being able to _afford_ college that he hadn't had time to worry about making the grades necessary to get into college. His GPA wasn't bad, better than average, and his SATs were pretty good too and his teachers had been kind enough to offer him extra credit over the summer as well, but it hadn't been necessary. MIT had offered him a full ride, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley, hell even Oxford had offered him a place in England, travel and accommodation included. His mother hadn't asked why or how, and Harley hadn't volunteered any information about it, but he picked MIT because that was Tony's alma mater. It was the least he could do, considering Tony was paying for it for him. 

Harley never thanked Tony, because after the first phone call, the number went out of service. Tony's cell (which Harley had sneaked a look at years ago and copied the number from) never rang or went to voicemail, depending on the day. So yeah, Harley thanked him by voicemail, but Tony had probably never listened to them. So instead, he took to praying. Every night before bed, Harley went out to his garage from the age of ten to eighteen (the year he left for college) and he sat on that old couch that Iron Man had once sat on and he spoke to the ceiling the way Tony used to when he forgot there was no Jarvis there to listen. Just in case Jarvis actually was listening. 

_XXX_

Jarvis was listening. But considering that wasn't quite above board, Tony didn't make a big deal out of telling people about it. He grinned when the kid thanked him, and he shook his head sadly or rolled his eyes in annoyance whenever his mother questioned him, but no one ever demanded he take his gifts back so Tony was content to help his new friend the only way he could short of adopting (or kidnapping) him. 

They were 'connected', Tony recalled with an amused snort. Kid had saved his life. It was the least he could do. 

"I was led to believe that mortals found such a thing disturbing?" A voice drawled from behind him. 

Tony whipped around, glass of whiskey in one hand and the TV remote in the other held out like a weapon that wouldn't fire. The TV had been playing the latest recording of Harley thanking him at night (little cameras installed in most of the modified gifts Tony had sent him, the better to keep an eye on him with), and across the coffee table college pamphlets made up a tablecloth of brightly coloured promises about futures that would leave you in debt for years to come. 

"Thought you were supposed to be dead?" Tony asked, after he managed to regulate his breathing and heart rate again. He set the remote down after turning off the TV (because Harley was his, dammit; not Loki's). He kept the whiskey; even went as far as to top it up and then grab a second glass from the counter beside himself for his guest. "Or were the reports of your death a great exaggeration?" He laughed at his own joke, but it went over the God's head. 

"Thor believes me dead, which suited my purposes at the time."

"Oh?" Tony handed over his glass. He wanted to ask, because honestly he was far too curious about Loki for his own good, but he kind of also wanted to call for back up, and 'oh' seemed pretty non-committal one way or the other. 

"Why are you watching the child? Is he yours?" It was something odd, Loki thought, to be overly concerned with a child who wasn't yours, especially on Asgard where it usually meant that someone would soon try to take that child away from Loki. Less odd though to be watched continuously, because Asgard did have Heimdallr after all. 

"Just a friend." Loki's eyes narrowed. Tony added, "He’s a good kid, he helped me out a while back. So I'm helping him out now." Tony waved his hand at the pamphlets and Loki scooped some up. Beneath them were older leaflets for high schools. Tony mentally reminded himself to pick up some newer ones; these ones would be very much out of date two years from now when Harley was actually old enough to start school. 

"The child did not look so old," Loki murmured thoughtfully, still staring at Tony somehow even as he read the brochures. 

"Gotta make sure the kid has a good start in life, you know. Considering his actual start wasn't so good." Tony turned around to reach for the bottle: his drink was empty again, and topping it up kept his hands full and kept them from shaking in Loki's presence. When he turned around, Loki, and the pamphlets, was gone. 

_XXX_

It had been a pretty weird experience, all things told, so Tony tried not to think about it too often. In doing so, the last thing he expected was to wake up to the sight of Loki sitting cross-legged in the arm chair by his bed (that Tony used as a make-shift clothes horse) reading a book. At least he wasn't watching me sleep, Tony thought groggily, as he pushed himself up the bed until he was sitting with his back against the headboard. 

"What are you doing here?"

"I thought the accepted custom upon Midgard was to watch those who you were interested in without their knowledge?" The smirk the curved the corners of Loki's lips let Tony know that he was teasing, but the 'interested' part had his eyebrows climbing up almost to his hairline. Loki ignored the slip, if he had even noticed it (maybe he had used that word on purpose), and his eyes darted back down to his book.. "Is this generally believed here?" The God asked. He flicked the book up for a second, held between two hands like a child being swung between his parents, and then carefully folded it closed so Tony could read the cover. 

The Poetic Edda wasn't something that Loki should have had to read, considering it had been written about him, but reading it he was. 

"Any good?" Tony asked. 

He had read it once, stoned out of his mind and having entered into a debate with a pretty (but clever) girl who had insisted that the old gods were more real than the Christian God. Tony, who hadn't and still didn't to be honest believed in any god(s), had read the book to point out it's inconsistencies, wanting more than to prove religion false just to be proven right himself. In the end, they had spaced out on mushrooms and brownies and the girl had ended up crying about 'poor Loki' while Tony had hummed agreeably and watched his hand move in front of his face. Tony couldn't remember what the book had said, not a thing other than what that girl had repeated out loud (something about a horse and a snake and entrails?) but the 'poor Loki' part was either very true or very false judging by the look on the real Loki's face. 

His lips were pinched into a frown and his eyes had narrowed. Somehow, they still managed to be wide and liquid as they stared at Tony, like depths of green ocean visible between cracks in cave wall or seabed or something else appropriately poetic. His skin was pale, the kind of pale that had more to do with being upset or bleeding to death than anything naturally occurring. Hell, Tony was pretty pale in New York compared to the Tony who used to live in Malibu, but that was his natural skin colour; Loki looked like he was borderline dead. 

"You ok?" He asked, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and fighting with the blankets until he managed to free his feet. When he was standing, he moved to pull the book out of Loki's hands. From the creases on the spine and the folds at the tops of some pages, Tony could tell what passages the god had been reading. A brief flick through later, and the engineer had gathered enough to know exactly what the girl had told him years ago: something about a horse, a snake and entrails, not necessarily in that order. And there were two snakes, and a little girl. And a wolf. 

So yeah, maybe a bit more to go on that what he'd known before. But nothing good, Tony was guessing. 

"Is this widely believed?" What to tell him, Tony wondered. That yes, everyone worshiped it as gospel, rejoice Loki you were a famous god, or no, that it was stupid story from centuries ago and no one thought of Loki now except to say 'gee remember that time he totaled Manhattan'? "Am I so pathetic that all know of my shame? Even the common beggars on the street, whores in their brothels, bottom feeders and common folk alike, do they all know this?" Loki snatched the Edda from Tony and threw it back in his face angrily. His eyes were wet, now more than before with tears leaking from the corners, and his lips had pulled back into a snarl. 

"Whoa!" Tony held up both hands placatingly, like he was trying to calm a wild animal. Not having much luck with that, he bent his knees to crouch a little, giving himself enough space and balance to whirl around and run for his life if he had to. Maybe he should bare his throat for good measure? It couldn't hurt to try. Head tilted back just a little, Tony spoke again, calm and soft: "Honestly, other than Lit majors no one gives a fuck about these kinds of books. I read it to impress a girl, got into a fight with her and got stoned. The two of us spent the night watching inanimate objects race one another while she cried cause she felt sorry for your horse or something. I don't know anyone else who's read it! They're making some movie based on the invasion, so people might want to research you a bit more, so yeah, some people might read it _now_ , but not homeless people or anything like that." He paused for a deep breath, nostrils flaring as he exhaled, "fyi, not cool to call them whores or bottom feeders. You want a drink?"

"It's 7am, Stark," was all Loki said, ignoring completely Tony's first response. 

"It's 6pm somewhere in the world, though," the genius replied loudly, already making his way out of the room. 

When Loki joined him, two drinks had been poured and left ready, and Jarvis was keeping an eye on the pancake batter Tony had poured into a pan. To Loki, it looked as if an invisible servant was changing the gas levels, setting the timer and calling 'Sir, they are done' when the timer went off. If he was startled, he didn't show it: unlike Thor who had smashed the toaster to pieces with Mjolnir, claiming it was but a trick of his brother's! Loki watched calmly as Tony served them both a plate of pancakes and then moved back to grab the whiskey tumblers. 

"I appologise for my words," the god said softly, not looking up from his plate. He accepted the food in silence, grateful for something to keep his hands busy and for an excuse to remain in the building, and he ate heartily. Tony ended up drinking both of the drinks, but Loki finished off his pancakes, fork in hand and sliding between Tony's own when the genius wasn't looking to snatch a whole one right off of his place, so it evened out. 

"What was that about anyway?" 

The TV came to life in the next room over. Harley's voice was easily distinguishable from every normal early morning talk show or cartoon, and Tony's head snapped around to face the sound coming from the living room. "Go check on your child," Loki ordered, waving a hand dismissively before gathering the dirty utensils together to deposit in the sink. 

"Tony?" The voice called. Obviously, no one answered. Tony never did. At least not for a few hours, so he could make it look like a coincidence (as opposed to him stalking the boy). "Mom didn't come home last night and I don't know what to do. Should I just bring Amber to school and then come back to wait? Or-" He trailed off into a sob, and then rubbed at his eyes furiously, ashamed at having been caught crying (even though he wasn't sure anyone was actually watching). 

Tony's hand was on the phone Pepper had insisted on keeping in the living room. Normal people had phones, she had said, normal people didn't ask their ceiling to dial for them. He had tried being normal and failed, but the phone had remained. He picked it up, but didn't dial, because he didn't know if he should. The kid was scared and needed him, sure, but it wasn't his kid. The kid already had parents, and didn't need him, not really. Maybe Tony should find out where his mother was instead. 

"Jarvis, do a search. Face recognition software, credit card traces, anything you can think of buddy." It turned out not to be necessary. By the time Loki had finished washing the dishes and had joined him in the living room, Amanda Keener was unlocking her front door. Her face was bloody and there was a nasty bruise already forming under one eye and she was missing her handbag, holding her keys like a shield in one fist and her broken heels in the other. 

"Hey sweetheart," she whispered as Harley whirled around to stare at her with wide eyes. She tilted her head to keep the bruise from being obvious, but there was no hiding the way her shirt had been ripped at the collar, like someone had grabbed her by the throat and shook her, or the blood around her mouth or the tears on her cheeks. "I worked a double shift. I was going to ring, but I didn't want to wake you. Got held up on the way home, is all, so don't you worry now. Go get your sister up for me while I make breakfast, hmm, baby?" 

"Sure mom," Harley answered woodenly. He left the room with his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, and Jarvis changed the video feed so Tony could watch him walk through the house until he reached Amber's room. Before he opened the door, he looked up at the ceiling again and asked, soft and confused looking like a puppy who couldn't understand why they'd been kicked, "someone hit my mom?" 

"I'll take care of it, kiddo," Tony promised, unheard. 

At his side, Loki snorted. It was a sound of disgust rather than amusement, and there was something about the look he shot the now dark TV screen that spoke of self-loathing and regret. "To be so vulnerable, so weak. To stand by idly as those you love are hurt and be _useless_ to help!" He snorted again, but this one sounded almost like a sob. "How familiar." Tony watched him out of the corner of his eyes, and between one blink and the next, Loki was gone. 

In Tennessee, a day later, just as Jarvis tracked down the man who had mugged and beat up Harley's mom, Loki drove a knife through his gut and left him, hands bound and still bleeding, outside of a closed police station in the middle of the night. The god returned to New York to let Tony know that the criminal would be dead before anyone found him. Tony didn't bother ringing the police station to wake up whoever was on the night shift; he figured it wasn't worth the trouble, and anyway, then he'd have to go back down to Rose Hill and take care of the fucker himself. Why waste all of Loki's hard work to do the same job twice. Instead, he had Jarvis call Harley, and told him to have his mom check the obituaries over the next few days, she might recognise someone's picture. 

_XXX_

"Who was it you failed to protect?" Tony had since read the Edda, but he wasn't sure what was real and what was exaggeration, so he wanted to ask. He wanted to know. Loki obviously didn't want to tell him, because he put down the drink he had just raised to his mouth and teleported out of the apartment. 

_XXX_

Four months later, Tony asked again. Two months after that he tried again, but this time he held on to Loki's arm before he asked, so that the god couldn't teleport away (or at least not without taking Tony with him). Loki had turned to him with a scowl, eyes narrowed and asked, "why do you wish to know? So you can mock me?"

"Have I ever mocked you? Other than in passing as a bit of friendly banter or because you tried to kill me?" Loki remained silent, so with a loud sigh, Tony continued, "Look, I figured we were frenemies or something.. You watch my kid with me, you help me hurt assholes that mess with him; I figured if you wanted to talk about your issues, I could listen." 

Loki's eyes were still narrowed, but the longer Tony remained waiting for an answer in silence, the softer the lines of Loki's face became. He no longer looked tense and suspicious, but instead a sort of calm weariness had plastered itself across his features and he rubbed slowly at his eyes as if trying to brush away the tiredness that sat heavily upon him. "My children." The answer was soft and quick, not expanded upon, not explained. Tony remembered the Edda, Loki's interest and then disgust of it, and his own admission of vulnerability and decided not to ask. 

"Sucks," the inventor said instead, shrugging his shoulders in a 'what can you' gesture. Loki offered a quirk of his lips, rolling his eyes then when Tony offered him a drink. 

"Not everyone must drown their sorrows in alcohol, Stark." 

"Not everyone can kick alien ass when they're feeling down, gorgeous," Tony snarked back, already pouring himself a glass. He poured one for Loki too, who took it with a sigh when it was offered but didn't drink it. "Unless you're offering?" Loki rolled his eyes again, but he was smiling faintly too so Tony counted it as a win on his part. "Wanna stick around while I check up on the kid?"

_XXX_

When Harley turned thirteen, Tony received an invitation by email to his party. There had been an invitation posted too, but Stark Industries hired employees to read Tony's mail for him and one of them had thrown it into the bin assuming it was from an overeager fan. The email was to Tony plus one, so Tony invited Loki. 

It had been almost ten months of them beings 'almost friends', since the first time Loki turned up unannounced in his Tower and still the other Avengers thought he was dead. Tony had never asked what Loki got up to in his spare time, and Loki had never volunteered that information, but whatever it was wasn't causing New York any trouble so Tony let it go. He had other things to worry about, like what to buy a thirteen year old that wouldn't end up with his mother refusing to accept it (damn Amanda!) but also what to buy his sister, because Tony didn't want to play favorites with his kids. 

"Clothing?" Loki offered. He had turned up early on the day of the party, having offered to teleport them both to Tennessee to save Tony the flight. Tony had already had first hand experience with Loki's magic, and with each time the effects got less severe, so he figured why not. This way it left him more time to freak out about a last minute gift. He'd made a Potato Gun Mark IV (because Harley had finished the Mark III without him), but the email had said that Tony could meet Harley's dad, and there was no way Tony was going to be out done on the gift giving by the man who had bailed on his awesome family. 

"Children are always growing out of clothing," Loki drawled, casually inspecting his nails instead of paying attention to Tony. The engineer had been pacing across the room for the last twenty minutes, ignoring each of Loki's suggestions, so the god wasn't holding out hope of being listened to now. 

Tony remembered something about Loki and kids, but not much, so he asked: "How do you know so much about what kids need?" Tony had turned to face the god, his eyes wide and his mouth pursed in the way that made Loki want to kiss them every time (he refrained, not wanting to ruin this friendship), and he scratched at his neck awkwardly. 

"I had some," the Asgardian volunteered quietly, "a long time ago." He didn't like to talk about it, and he didn't like that Midgard had recorded stories that were too close to the truth to be coincidence (or comfortable), and he didn't like that he _knew_ Tony had read the Edda after that night. But he hadn't lied to Tony in ten months, and Loki didn't want this to be the first time. 

In his usual manner, making jokes out of awkward situations to ease the tension, Tony slapped him playfully on the shoulder and asked, "Did you really give birth to a horse? You animal, you!" Loki grunted as Tony's elbow nudged his ribs; his dirty look didn't deter Tony from doing it again and again, as he said, "ey? ey? Get it, animal?"

"You are an imbecile." His tone was fonder than his words, and Tony smiled sweetly at his friend as the god held his hand out. "Let us leave. I will bring you to a clothing store, you will buy clothes, and give the child your toys," (of course Tony had made Harley more than _just_ the Mark IV) "and allow him to hug you and hand you cake without complaint. You will have a good time, I will not cause trouble, and you are still an imbecile, Stark."

Tony took his hand, fingers lacing with Loki's own, hand clenching as he prepared himself for the initial horrid feeling of being squeezed through a space way too small: the rest of the trip was awesome, if he kept his eyes closed (having no wish to stare into dead space again, thank you very much), but that first jerk behind his navel made him queasy. It was nice to have Loki there to hold on to, and the god never scrimped on the comfort giving, not since four months ago at least when they finally cleared up the issue of them being friends. 

"You know you love me," the mortal teased. 

"I do," Loki replied, as he always replied, quite seriously. Tony thought he was joking. 

_XXX_

Pepper had always said to him that Tony was the stupidest, smart person that she knew. Actually, a lot of people had said that to him before. He'd never really given it much thought, because really, how should he have responded? 'Yeah, sorry I didn't realize you were my friend until you told me? Too late, we're already friends, what are you going to do about it!' 'Sorry I didn't know you liked me while I was flirting shamelessly with you and other women? Oh, hey we're dating, you got over it.' It wasn't his fault that he was blunt and other people weren't. If Loki had said, "I do," and then grabbed him by the jaw and kissed him Tony would have taken him seriously. 

But Loki didn't. That made Loki the stupid one, not him. 

Loki had disappeared for a month, and Loki disappearing wasn't an unusual thing (he was still King of Asgard after all, he probably had Asgard shit to deal with), and it wasn't like Tony was just sitting around waiting for him to come back or anything. He had inventions to invent, and Viktor Von Doom's ass to kick, and some HYDRA dudes were targeting him with the Helicarrier's _he_ had built (how fucking rude) and he was getting angry text messages from Natasha for not helping out Captain Can't Fight His Own Battles: Tony was busy. He didn't have time to miss Loki. 

He still did, though. 

He also had time to pick up a pretty girl from a bar in downtown Manhattan. She was dark haired with green eyes (not the right shade, but close enough that Tony could pretend), long legs and pale skin (too many freckles though)! But after enough Jaeger shots, she looked just like Loki (but with tits) to Tony. 

Unfortunately, Loki chose that night to stop being busy in Asgard. 

It wasn’t Tony’s finest moment, bare-ass on display with his jeans rucked down around his thighs and her legs around his waist, tights ripped in Tony’s rush to get his hand under her skirt as he kissed her. Her head was thrown back, and Tony was panting ‘Loki’ softly into her mouth between kisses, but the God didn’t hear that. He heard nothing but the blood rushing through his veins, his heart pounding wildly where it had lodged in his throat, choking him. Loki saw Tony, his Tony, who _knew_ Loki was in love with him, half naked above another person, hard and ready and willing to take her to his bed in place of Loki (who had not so much as been kissed yet). 

“Am I so horrid to deserve this?” The God asked, his voice soft and shaky. There were tears pooling at the corners of his eyes when Tony’s head snapped around to face him. 

The engineer scrambled off of his date, legs and arms flailing as he toppled over the edge of the bed. He landed with a loud exhale of breath, and she sat up screaming, covering her breasts with a pillow. Loki ignored her completely. His eyes were fixed on Tony, whose mouth was open in shock and whose brown eyes were blown wide. 

“Whaa?” He squeaked. He made an attempt to pick himself off of the floor, but got tangled in his discarded shirt, landing on his ass again. “Loki?”

“Does she have meaning to you?” 

“What?” Tony asked again, still struggling to get his bearings. “No. No!” He added, making a second attempt to get to his feet. Once he was upright, Tony moved towards Loki, hands out imploringly before fingers curled around biceps, squeezing like Loki might disappear at any moment. “Nothing. No meaning, none, not at all,” he was quick to reassure. 

“Then why is she in your bed?” Loki’s voice was tight, but Tony could hear the tremble the hid beneath the tone of angry disinterest. 

It was now or never, Tony realised. Never mind if Loki had been serious for all of this time, never mind if this was some elaborate joke Loki had orchestrated; if Tony didn’t do it now, he never would, and then _this_ would all be over. He didn’t say ‘I love you’ because he didn’t, not yet, and Loki would never have believed it. Instead, Tony told the truth. 

“Because she looks like you,” the mortal whispered, letting go of one of Loki’s arms to wave his hand at the woman’s face. “She looks like you, and I couldn’t have you, so I settled for second best.”

Loki’s whole demeanour changed. He went from being hurt and offended, bristling like an angry cat, to practically melting into Tony’s chest. “Oh,” he breathed lowly, “oh.” The trembling lips suddenly widened into a smile, watery eyes brightened, and the angry flush across his cheeks darkened in pleasure. “You can have me.” Loki whispered as he pressed his lips against Tony’s, soft and gentle. 

Their second kiss was frantic, fast and desperate, wet and messy. Tony’s teeth hurt from hitting them against Loki’s and the god’s lip was bleeding sluggishly when they pulled apart.

“You can have me,” Loki told his mortal again, face tucked against Tony’s neck as the engineer used both arms to hold him close. When he chanced a look back at the bed, the woman he had brought home was gone and the bed was neatly made, like none of that had even happened. Tony was tempted to ask if it _had_ been a trick of Loki’s, but thought it best not to mention it ever again: he’d be safer that way.

In love with Tony or not, Loki was still Loki of the bat-shit insane. 

_XXX_

When Harley turned fifteen, Tony and Loki arrived at the party hand in hand after teleporting into the middle of the backyard. They didn’t let go immediately after, like they normally did. In fact, they didn’t let go at all. 

_XXX_

 

**The End**

 

Thanks for reading. **Go check out the accompanying fan art at the link above!!**

There might be another part at some far-off point in the future, comprised of the following. But, at this point in time, RL is super hard and stressful and busy, and the story ended well where I ended it, I think. 

. Harley is 16: walks in on Tony and Loki having sex. Makes a joke about siblings casually, rather than getting embarrassed. He knows Tony’s reputation, he isn’t surprised. 

. Harley is 18: graduates from MIT. Loki and Tony celebrate by visiting Jormungandr in a new underwater Iron Man suit. Brings Harley in one of his own. 

. Harley is 20: applies for a Stark Industries internship at an Expo. Bumps into Tony, who hands him a contract to sign without asking, and then another (the second are adoption papers). Because you’re never too old to have parents. 

The End.


End file.
